Future Plans

Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that."
James 4:13-15

So we got word today that we are #66 in line for a place at the Mueller Redevelopment! That means we may get a row house during the 1st phase of construction (early 2008, 40 row houses) if enough people drop out or might need to wait until the 2nd phase (later 2008?, 40 more). As soon as I read the email, I got goose bumps and started to get out a piece of paper to make a plan for the next couple of years for us.

Ironically (or Godically) enough, this week we are studying James 4 in our Care Group and the verse above kept running through my head. I have been saying, "Today or tomorrow, we will do this or that" for a long time. I live my life under the false security of my meticulous future plans, when I should be giving them over to Him.

So, yes, we are excited about the opportunity at Mueller and can't believe we may have the opportunity to afford a great place close to Jason's work and downtown Austin. But I am praying for the patience and flexibility to make sure that what I have in mind falls in line with what God has in mind.

Photo Update

Maizie's first "big girl" bath.


Showing off her two (lower) front teeth.


Swimming in the pool with Dad is the coolest.


The 3 M's (Maizie, Mia & Morgandy) all in pink.

Bad Parent Moment #4297

This is Maizie's latest trick. And it breaks my heart. So, I picked her up last night. I broke the cardinal rule of getting them to go to sleep on their own. And then she was up until 12:30 a.m. We had a lot of fun late-night playing, but now I'm not sure when she'll ever be back on a normal schedule. Any hints out there for helping me stick to my "cry-it-out" guns?

Everything I Need to Know (About Pests and Varmints) I Learned in Texas

By request, here are some things this northern city girl has learned from living in Texas:

1. Bats can squeeze under doors. One afternoon, 3 bats swooped into our offices at Texas A&M. Before the bat police could get there, a co-worker locked them into the conference room. We all stood by the door, relieved, when they flew out from under the door and terrorized the office a bit longer.
2. Rats are not possums. I came home from work in College Station to find a lifeless rodent in our driveway. It was about 8" long with a tail that looked like it could wrap around a tree a few times and sleep. I took a picture, because I thought it might be a possum "playing possum" and I wanted Jason to see it before it woke up and ran away. Come to find out, it was just a dead rat.
3. Cockroaches can fly. I learned this while moving into the farmhouse in Normangee, TX. I used a spray to "flush" them out, and they started flying around the whole house. I called Jason while standing on a chair in the living room, crying "I am a prisoner in my own home."
4. Armadillos Need Glasses. We were walking in Commerce, TX, when I almost tripped over an armadillo. Gross. That's when I learned that they don't see well, so they don't scamper away from people like other animals do. They also get run over a lot, judging from Texas highway shoulders.
5. Rattlesnakes do not sting you with their rattle. They actually bite you like all the other snakes in the world. I learned this after I told Jason I wanted to go to the Rattlesnake Round-up. Conversation--J: Aren't you afraid of snakes? C: Yes, but I can just avoid their tails.

Seven is the Luckiest Number

Maizie turned SEVEN months old yesterday. Unbelievable. I tried to post 7 pictures, but no luck. Here are 4 and I'll put 3 more on in a separate post. To go along with her pictures, here are 7 things Maizie's tried this month:

1. Pickles, lemons, limes, green beans, squash, sweet potatoes, guacamole, apple juice. In essence, food.
2. Venturing out of the living room. She takes any opportunity to explore the rest of the house.
3. Pulling up on the furniture. An exciting proposition for Maizie. A scary one for Mommy.
4. Da Da Da Da Da Da Da. That's right. Maizie says Da Da and not Ma Ma. We knew he'd be her favorite.
5. Three custom-made dresses by Aunt Jo Jo. They're the cutest things ever created.
6. A record four-costume-change day! Thank God for Oxyclean.
7. Swimming. Maizie had her first swim on May 15th. She loves the water.

I am so happy God chose me to be Maizie's mom.


Yummy Pickles.

"I love my new dress"

"I am too cool for school."

Playing with her toy plane while flying in a real one.

Seven is the Luckiest Number Part 2

Daddy's little Asian ballerina. This outfit was a present from Cody and Heather. So cute.


Light as a feather. Stiff as a board. Meeting cousin Dylan.


Why is this bath so big and cold?

For the rest of Maizie's Seven Month Pics, visit http://picasaweb.google.com/carengeorge/SevenMonths

Frost Hits Texas in May

Last week was busy with Nana and Papa (aka MooMaw and PooPaw) in town from Michigan. Here are some highlights from the trip:

• We went to the Oasis and saw a beautiful sunset.
• Jason and I went on a day-long date! We kayaked on Town Lake and saw The Ex at the Alamo Drafthouse.
• We walked through Austin's Botanical Gardens and Nature and Science Center.
• We celebrated my first mother's day with my mom and aunt and grandma (Maizie's present to me was to scream through the entire sermon. She was so loud, Jason could hear her and came back to rescue me.)
• We hung out with my cousin, Dustin, and got to meet his baby (17 months old), Dylan.
• We toured the Texas State Capitol and sat in on the vote to put restrictions on red-light cameras.
• We took Maizie for her first swim!

All in all, it was a very eventful and fun-filled week with Nana and Papa. We are so blessed that they were able to come be with (and completely spoil) us.

Word

I've decided that I'd like to use the word "a-kimbo" more often.

Five-Alarm Cry

Just a quick note tonight. Maizie has a new cry. When she was first born, we thought her cries sounded like "Hey you, over there, if you get a minute, could I get some food?" Jason commented tonight that now she has an "I'm on fire! Could you get me some food?" cry.

Preparation is Two Parts God

I heard a lady from our church speak recently about how she had a hard time with foreign languages. She had to drop out of Spanish in high school. But to graduate from college, she had to take one course. She opted for American sign language instead and ended up changing her major to deaf education. Many years down the road, she had two sons with hearing impairments. Because of her dislike of foreign languages, God had prepared her ahead of time to provide for her sons.

***

So I was a really good student. The kind that asked for homework in 1st grade. The kind that would cry if I ever came home with a B (I'm still mad at you, Mrs. Ingram, for 5th grade math!). So when it came time for career day at school and we were asked to draw a picture of what we would like to be when we grew up, I'm sure my parents and teachers were a little disappointed when I drew a picture of a waitress and a cashier at Meijer. I ended up going into advertising, but whenever I was between jobs, I'd do a stint in waitressing.

Now a few years down the road, I find myself stopping at a deli for lunch, and end up maneuvering through a busy lunch crowd with a 15-lb. baby, a 12 lb. car seat, a diaper bag, a purse, a tray of food, a drink, and (of course) some gelato in my hands. And it was all possible due to the 3-glass-in-1-hand hold I had to learn from waitressing. Now I know that's a little more trivial than being able to communicate with your children, but that mint stratiatella ice cream really made my day.

Moral of the story: You never know how God can use a seemingly meaningless thing from your past for good in the future.

Spring Storm

I'm up again in the middle of the night. It's storming, which is usually calming to me, but apparantly not to Maizie. She started screaming at 1:30 and Jason tried to calm her down, but we ended up feeding her around 2. Now I'm wide awake. Things have been good this month. We went to Nashville to visit Jodi last week and made dresses for Maizie (I'll try to learn how to post soon) and went shopping and talked...alot. I have missed girl time so much lately, so it was nice. We've made good friends at church and we get together about once a week for lunch. Two of the girls have babies around Maizie's age, so it's fun to watch them grow and change from week to week.

Maizie is crawling around and starting to pull up on things. It's kinda scary, because she's SUPER wobbly and has fallen every time she's tried. It's a lesson in persistence. No matter how many times she falls, she keeps trying until she gets up. She's inspired me to continue trying to find work from home. I lose my confidence about it alot and one little thing can make me not want to put myself out there for weeks. This week, I have my confidence back, so I'm trying to get as much done as possible. I wish I could stop doubting and just keep trying like my 6-month-old baby girl.

Well, we both are still having a hard time feeling like Austin is home. We love the city, the people we've met, Jason's job, everything--it just takes time for it to feel like home. On that front, we applied for a house. Check it out. http://www.muelleraustin.com/ Austin is revamping their old airport to be a new development, complete with schools, rec centers, parks, shopping, etc. We have applied for a townhome under affordable housing. We're praying that are chosen in the lottery (I feel like the chance is 5-10%). This would be a great big sign that Austin is where we are meant to be.